Yesterday marked a glorious day for the city of Winnipeg. I awoke at around 10am to friends messaging me saying “We’re going to the Forks, Jets announcement at 11!!!”. Frantically, I pulled myself together and hopped in the truck and met my friend Clay, and sped off to the Forks, and we made it just in the nick of time. The energy of the place was electrifying to say the least, there had to be 1000+ people crammed under the centre canopy at the Forks.

GO JETS GO chants filled the air, and a deafening cheer came when Mark Chipman told the crowd that the Atlanta Thrashers had been purchased by True North. It truly is a momentous occasion for Winnipeg, now it’s time for us to step up to the plate, and keep the team here once and for all.

We figured that we were obligated to go to Taronga Zoo in Sydney, because we figured in case we didn’t end up seeing a wild kangaroo, we could at least see one here. Note: the only kangaroo we did end up seeing in the wild… was dead. Sad story, I know. But I digress. We hit up the Circular Quay and hopped on the ferry over to the Zoo at about 2:30pm. When you get to the zoo, you’re basically at the bottom of a large hill. You can either take a gondola to the top of the Zoo, and work your way down the hill. Or just walk up and back down. We opted for the Sky Safari, because we are lazy travellers apparently. It gave a pretty sick view of the zoo though.

Once we stepped off the gondola, we found our way to the crocodiles. They’re some creepy looking bastards, and you could get a really close look at them. From there, we headed to the lazy ass koala bears. Apparently, because they sleep for like 22 hours a day, their brains are getting smaller with each generation. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing was happening to sloths either. The Reptile House took up a lot of our time, because the 3 of us have a soft spot in our heart for lizards, especially Liam. Unfortunately, it was after this we found out the Zoo closes at 5, so we had to hurry our asses up and get to the kangaroos. We quickly ran over there, and pretty much saw all the Australian animals. Wallabies, kangaroos, and emus. The kangaroos were pretty hilarious, one of them was just lying on its back, scratching its balls. All in all, the zoo was very entertaining, and I got some nice pictures out of it. Boom.

Oh Sydney, how groggy I was when I arrived. So, prior to arriving here, we’d stayed at the airport because our flight left at 6am, and well…. we’re cheap asses and didn’t want to pay for a hostel. Regardless, we got out of Christchurch just in the nick of time it seems, because the huge 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the city just 2 days later. We arrived in Sydney with no idea what where we were staying, and expecting to be picked up by Nick’s step-bro. Alas, there was no ride awaiting us, he was passed out hungover as hell. So, 2 free busses, a ferry, and a couple hours of figuring shit out later, we were in Manly, a very cool suburb of Sydney.

We got a sketchy little apartment for a couple nights, it came with everything, including ants! So that was dope. That day we took a visit to Manly Beach, and watched the lifeguards save copious amounts of people from the rip. Something that is very uncommon to see in the relatively calm and algae filled waters of Lake Manitoba or Lake Winnipeg. Afterwards, we indulged in the cheapest beer we could get our hands on, and checked out some of the local pubs that night. We eventually made our way to the ol’ Manly Boatshed which would be the scene for many more escapades in the coming weeks of this trip. Pretty much the next couple nights in Sydney were spent drinking, attempting to surf, and exploring, until we decided to go to the Sydney Aquarium. Sweet as!

Twas a fine February day when we decided to take a drive down to the Cave Stream in Arthur’s Pass. Essentially, you spend an hour walking foot to waist high in a river flowing through and underground cave. It was pretty frickin’ rad. We arrived equipped with cheap headlamps and rain coats, and made our way in. We saw other people coming out just soaked, but clearly entertained by the trek they’d just taken, so I was pumped. I decided to risk bringing my 7D with the 430 EX II attached, so we might be able to grab some shots on the inside. I’m glad I did.

Contrary to other hikes we’d done, this one was fun and easy. I felt like a little kid again, just exploring all the nooks and crannies of this cave, hoping that maybe, just maybe, there’d be some badass treasure hidden deep in some crevice in this cave. Alas, the only reward we left the cave with was a hand full of pictures and good times, and who can really complain about that? I know, neither can I.

On the weekend of the 12th of February, our grungy gang of Manitobans and native Kiwi’s John and Glenn set off to take on the track up to Frews Hut on Mt. Inframeta. From here, we would be exploring for and re-cutting a 30 year old track, that probably hadn’t been used in that long. When the track had been cut, it was used primarily by possum hunters. It was a 4 and a half hour trek in, with slippery rocks and stinging nettle abound! One of the coolest experiences of this track was the Flying Fox we had to take to get across the river. You can get an idea of what the Flying Fox is in the video below, and the featured image of this post. We also had to repel down a rock wall with a rope tied from a tree, so this was turning out to be our most epic hike yet. Arriving at the hut in the early evening, we decided it was best to make it an early night and get up early the next day to get a good start on cutting.

The next morning was pretty slow getting up to say the least. We awoke at 6am, cooked up some breakfast on our camping stoves, and were off to find the track. It took us about half an hour, and Glenn’s GPS, but we found it. And we started cutting. With 5 guys cutting, and one guy leading, the goal was to get to the tussock of the mountain, which is the part just before the peak where the bush gets thin and it’s basically just prairie-like grass. This proved to be a much more difficult task then we’d initially prepared for. We cut about 1.5km of bush up the side of the mountain before turning around, having not reached the tussock, and a nice collection of scrapes, bruises and general soreness to go along with it. But it was a pretty wicked experience, that I may never have the chance to experience again, so I can’t really complain. We left Frews the next day, and back to our travelling way of life… and a shower.

We rolled into Wanaka at around 9:00 on February 2nd, and when I first stood out of the car at the BP gas station, I seriously felt like Terry Fox. My legs could not function in any normal way after the walk down from Copland. I’d be sleeping soon though, once we found a place of course. After a little stroll around the town to stretch our legs, we found a little holiday park in Albert Town, about 7km north of Wanaka.

Here I left my camera outside to do a timelapse of the stars, while I had a cold, terrible sleep. On the other hand, the timelapse turned out pretty sweet:

The next morning, we made some eggs, fended off hungry mallards and headed back to Wanaka to catch some rays. It’s a tourist town, so naturally, we did not have any money to invest in it. We hit the skatepark, internet cafe and made some lunch in the park. Nick briefly lost his hat, before seeing some dumb local wearing it, and subsequently retrieving it from said local. Silly Wanakans… is that right? We’d had enough of Wanaka, so we figured we’d just head to Queenstown and get this bungee jump thing going.

We rolled into Q-Town at about 5:00, and promptly booked our A.J. Hackett bungy jump. 10:30am, February 4th, doomsday. Next, we booked a room at the Pinewood Lodge, the cheapest hostel in town. Done. Then the obligatory liquor run. Done. While adventuring uptown, we found out the local bar Revolver happened to have a mini-ramp in it that you could skate whilst drinking. Obviously that is where we headed that night, and there was some rad people hanging out there. There is nothing like having a few beers, filming, skateboarding, and hanging out with good people. This here folks, made for a good night.

The next morning of course was the bungy jump. We took a bus up to the bungy at 10:30am, and jumped in the order of myself, Liam, Nick and finally Brendan. Here’s vids of all of us hitting it up:

Me:

Nick:

Brendan:

February 1st marked the beginning of our road trip to Queenstown. Our stops for the day were the Fox Glacier and the Copland Hot Pools. We rolled into Fox Glacier at around 12:30, and picked the wrong parking lot to park at. So it took us about an hour to actually walk up to the glacier, and an hour to walk back. This is knowing full well we had at least a 4 hour walk ahead of us at the Copland Track. It was a beautifully huge chunk of ice, and if you looked carefully you could see the brave souls taking the climbing tours on that slippery rock.

We arrived at Copland Track around 2, and figured we could up there for 7. We packed up all our gear for the night (I brought all the electronics, didn’t trust them in the car) and we began the hike. The vegetation was the same as all the other hikes, and there were a few sketchy bridges to cross. Liam and Nick made it in 4:15, and me and Brendan were up in 4:30. All of our feet and backs were toast. We had originally planned to camp, but there was a nice huge hut to stay in for the night. 11 people in total stayed in there, and the place even had mats for us to sleep on. Beauty! To top it off, the hut warden wasn’t there, so we wouldn’t even have to pay!

After a nice soak in the hot pools the previous night, we awoke to rain. Lots and lots of rain. The Danish couple in the hut radioed someone to get the weather forecast, which called for it to clear up in the afternoon. This was a relief, because none of us really felt like staying another night up there, we just wanted to get the trip on the go. When the rain lightened up, I went and snapped some pictures of the hot pools and the mountain side. After a bite to eat, we were out of there. 4 and a half hours, and we were back down the mountain. My shoes were soaked, since we had been trekking through overflowing creeks and such. I also had a huge blister on my big toe, which was uncomfortable to say the least. We ate some eggs at the car, chugged some water, and we were on with our adventure!

We woke up fairly early this morning, and got the hell out of our camping spot. We were starting to get covered in sandfly bites. Little did we know… We finally rolled into Nelson around noon maybe, and stopped at Mcdonald’s to use the free wifi, after which we headed to a few of the skateshops in town so that Nick could get shoes. In one of the ones we went to, I found some thong sandals for myself. First pair ever, so we’ll see how it goes. For that day, they left some blisters on my feet, and they hurt, but it’s pain for pleasure, and it’s so flippin’ easy to just slip into them. Once we were all set in this town, we drove around and eventually found the beach, conveniently when the sun was at its peak. It was a beautiful day out. It was also Nick and Brendan’s first time swimming in the ocean. The verdict: salty as hell. After the beach, we headed back downtown.

First order of business after swimming: have some beers. So off to 623 In the City, to indulge in some of their frothy pints. After our time there, we headed to the skatepark, where it turned out you could camp for the night. So we did just that. We skated around the park until sundown, met some kid who had moved there from Australia just last week, and had a good time. We stayed in Nelson just relaxing and doing the same thing for another day or so, and then headed back to Hokitika to plan our next, much larger excursion: Queenstown.

On the 27th, we woke up bright and early, made some breakfast, and were off to Mt. Brown. The start of the trail is located about half an hour from Hokitika. We all strapped on our backpacks, which had food and water, and headed up the trail. The incline started nice and mellow, so we gave’r along the trail till we got to a creek, which was pretty cool to see in the middle of the forest. After we crossed it, the trail started to get steeper. Not just a little steeper, like, climb up the side of a mountain steep.

After 2 hours, and almost dying (long story) I reached the top. It was a gorgeous view up there. A little hut was located at the top. Sadly, the boys had already made it up and started heading down before I got there (like I said, long story), so I was all my lonesome. First thing I did was chug a TON of water from the shack’s tap, and then ate more crackers. In the hut was a plaque honoring everyone who’d helped build the trails and hut. Our buddy Andrew Osnach and Nick’s stepdad were on the plaque and their picture was in the book. So that was pretty cool. I snapped some pictures of the area, and made my way back down to the bottom. After regrouping with the guys, we went for some celebratory fish and chips at Corky’s, then headed home to rest for the night.

We awoke the next day with a much chiller day in mind. Our plans were to head to the Pancake Rocks. We got on the road around 9:00. On a whim, we decided to check out the Monteith’s Brewery Tour as well. It was really awesome. We went on the 11:30 tour, and saw how they made the 8 brews they’re currently offering at the moment. Then we got to try them all. We also got to pour our own beer and take pictures. The whole tour only cost $18 NZD, which is well worth it I’d say. To kill some time, since Pancake Rocks are best at high tide, 4 o’clock, we headed to the Greymouth skatepark. The kids there were really young, and very interested in where we were from, and the fact that all of our boards were the same. We stayed there for an hour, then started the 40 minute drive to the Pancake Rocks in Punakaiki. There were some cool stops along the road along the way, since it was a coastal drive.

The Pancake Rocks are a huge tourist attraction. They look like many stacks of pancakes. There were tons of cars and busses when we got there. It took around an hour to walk around in there, and we jumped the fence and went right down by the water. Got some really good pictures from there. Right when we got back to our cars, we saw these two crazy birds walking around the parking lot. We tried to feed them a stick and get them close to us, and I got some good pictures of them as well. On the way back to Hokitika, we stopped at a random service road and walked for a bit, assuming there would be SOMETHING at the end. Alas, there was nothing. Tomorrow, we’re leaving on a 4 day road trip to Nelson and back, in hopes of some nice beaches, and beautiful sights.